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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Desensitization: A Trick of the Devil

The word desensitize means to make less sensitive or to reduce the reactive power of something for a stimulus. For instance if a person wants to increase his resistance to an allergen, all they would need to do is constantly be exposed to that allergen over time until their immune system develops a resistance to it. Now desensitization is good for medical reasons, but when it comes to spiritual things or spiritual matters it can actually have harmful repercussions. When you consider the annual celebration of the Christian holiday, Easter, its not hard to guess what the subject matter is going to be on the 3rd Sunday of April. Usually a minister or pastor mounts the pulpit to take a text from a passage of scripture and relate it to the miracle of all miracles the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Every year, I'm sure, he/she hopes the message will have positve resounding effects as the believers are once again reminded of the great sacrifice Christ made at Calvary and the gurantee of our salvation and acceptance with God demonstrated by the resurrection of Christ on that glorious Sunday morning. However, due to the near redundancy of the subject matter, believers could almost fall into a trap of desensitization that would make us numb to the effect of the truth to our ears. I think one of the tricks of the Devil, our soul enemy, is desesitization. I think the enemy jeers at the fact that due to the familiarity and commonality of the resurrection message, believers often overlook the great truths that the resurrection of Christ represents. See, its one thing to accumulate a bunch facts and treat it as such, its another thing to understand and treasure the truth that the facts represents. And the enemy would love for believers to have a nonchalant, non-caring attitude towards the cross. See the cross represents Christ's eternal victory over sin and its consequences. It represents a pathway to God and the ability to have restored fellowship with Him. It stands for the life of victory that believers can now live in due to Christ's vicarious victory. Through the cross sinners obtain salvation. Through the cross believers obtain justification. Through the cross saints recieve regeneration. From the cross the Christian no longer lives in condemnation. That's the power of the cross! But the enemy doesn't want us to understand these great truths, because the Bible still states that "ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". Therefore I want to encourage every believer not to look at Easter as just another family gathering, or just another witty message put together by a skilled orator, or another worship service focused on a Biblical fact, but rather understand the price that was paid by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Don't allow the enemy to stagnate you with facts, but take out time to appreciate the glorious and divine love of the Father through sending us a perfect sacrifice. Desensitization is a trick of the devil, but as with all his tricks, you don't have be ignorant nor deceived by them. Thank God for the resurrection! Be Blessed!